The main theme of the conference will be connexin diversity. The primary goal of the conference is to promote interaction among U.S. investigators and those from other parts of the world taking diverse approaches to the analysis of the properties and roles of the numerous isoforms of connexin. This meeting is especially timely because of recent discoveries in the molecular biology of gap junctions and the increasing evidence that these junctions play important roles in the pathologies associated with ischemic heart disease, cancer, and genetic conditions such as visceroatrial heterotaxia and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Eight conference plenary sessions will cover the following topics: Structural diversity and topology of gap junction channels; Connexin-specific biophysical properties; Connexin gene-structure, mapping, and evolution; Differential expression: the roles and consequences of connexin diversity; Diverse gap junctions in cell adhesion, mitotic control, and cancer; Connexin-specific regulation: protons, Ca2+, and phosphorylation; Channel formation: connexin expression, synthesis, assembly, and docking. There will be two poster sessions and three discussion sessions. The organizing committee will select a total of 42 invited participants: 35 session speakers, l keynote speaker, and 6 evening speakers based on submitted abstracts and on the significance of their previous work. This meeting will be the sixth in a series that have alternated between the U.S. and Europe every 2-3 years since 1984. The published proceedings of past meetings have provided the most up-to-date and influential information about gap junctions available at the time. We expect the proposed conference to be of great significance to the field in identifying important questions and trends in research, and in attracting scientists from other fields into investigations of cell communication. Special effort will be made to bring younger scientists, including women and members of under-represented groups to the meeting.
